Innovation in Real-World Practice

The goal of the Journal of Invasive Cardiology is to select articles from clinicians and researchers with teaching value for your cardiology practice. We have included several articles for the October issue which we believe provide both important and relevant information to healthcare professionals that will enable them to provide state-of-the-art treatment for cardiovascular disease patients.

The original research articles contained in this issue of the Journal cover a variety of topics relevant to clinical practice. Dr. Miry Blich and colleagues from the Rambam Healthcare Campus and the Technion Medical School in Haifa, Israel, report on their evaluation of the incidence, predictors and outcomes of drug-eluting stent thrombosis in real-world practice. Dr. Sorin Brener from the editorial board has provided a commentary to accompany the Blich et al article. Dr. Michael Reed from the University of Michigan and collaborators from BMC2 centers and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, report on their study comparing the renal safety of iodixanol versus low-osmolar contrast media in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Next, Dr. Costin Ionescu and colleagues from the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, Connecticut, report on their study of treatment and outcomes of nonagenarians with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Drs. Milan Patel and Allen Jeremias from Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, New York have provided a commentary to accompany the Ionescu et al article. Yvonne Strahm and associates from the Swiss Cardiovascular Center and the Institute of Pathology at University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland describe their analysis of endothelial-cell-binding aptamer for coating intracoronary stents.

In the next article, Dr. Giovanni Paolo Talarico and associates from the Institute of Cardiology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, report on their study to determine if thrombus aspiration without additional ballooning or stenting is useful in treating selected patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction. Dr. George Vetrovec of the editorial board has provided a commentary to accompany this article. The final original research selection comes from Dr. Dina Halwani and colleagues from University of Alabama in Birmingham and Cyprus University of Technology in Nicosia, Cyprus, and describes their study of in vivo corrosion and local release of metallic ions from vascular stents into the surrounding tissue.

In the Clinical Images section, Drs. Biana Trost, Leticia Fernandez-Friera and Javier Sanz from the Zena and Michael A. Weiner Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, describe an unusual case of anomalous origin of three major coronary arteries from a single common ostium. Dr. Sanjay Kumar and colleagues from East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust in the U.K., have provided a Rapid Communication article describing their early experience with the GuideLiner “Child” catheter for percutaneous coronary intervention. This issue of the Journal is completed with a New Technique paper submitted by Drs. Bruce Bowers, Stuart Head and David Brown from Medical City Dallas Hospital in Dallas, Texas, and Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, which describes their approach of employing temporary aortic occlusion to facilitate large-bore arterial closure.

Articles published in our Online Exclusive section this month include a case and literature review of menstruation-associated spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a report of an unusual early drug-eluting stent fracture, an atypical presentation of acute streptococcal myocarditis presenting as an acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction, a case highlighting the management of severe bilateral carotid artery stenosis in the setting of severely symptomatic coronary artery disease requiring coronary bypass graft surgery, and a case describing the successful retrieval of a broken intravascular ultrasound catheter tip in a coronary artery. This month we have included three complex coronary intervention cases, one describing a late-presenting left internal mammary artery-to-a great cardiac vein fistula treated with a vascular plug; another case demonstrating the use of rotational atherectomy in salvaging an undilatable lesion in the setting of coronary artery dissection; and a third which describes the detachment of an AngioSculpt EX catheter during PCI that was successfully retrieved with stent jailing of the entrapped balloon catheter and its shaft against the vessel wall.

These selections can be found on our Web site, and I encourage you to visit www.invasivecardiology.com to read these interesting and informative articles, as well as any past issues of the Journal that you may have missed. Also, we hope you will take advantage of our participation in social networking with links to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from our home page for interesting discussions of important topics.